La Noche en Blanco

by Laura Ellis on Tuesday, September 14, 2010

So what I was planning on being a quiet weekend away with friends whilst my sister was here took a rapid change when we arrived in Madrid on saturday lunchtime and were bombarded with blue leaflets entitled 'La Noche en Blanco'. Altogether an alien concept for me, I hastily tucked the pamphlet away for later, thinking it would be nothing more than a random exhibition. How wrong i was!

Upon meeting with my friends who are working in Madrid, I was greeted with the exclamation that I had come on "the best weekend ever" as they proceeded to tell me about the open air exhibitions that took place at this annual street party.

Despite having experienced the Madrid nightlife before, I was definitely not prepared for the many thousands of people that crowded the streets, moving from one of the almost 100 exhibits to the next. With music, film and artists as far as the eye could see, it was clear to see that the literal translation "a sleepless night" was truely what this was going to be.

One of the aspects that I found the most enjoyable was the varied timetable. With each element constructed around a different schedule, it made it so much easier to see everything, rather than having to sacrifice certain elements, and indeed simply wlaking round to begin with the contrast of each stage was particularly interested as, for example, I saw both the start and the end of a work of street art.

Another important idea within this annual cultural festival is that of museums being open all night, and unfortunately this was one element I did not have the chance to experience, as our hotel was on practically the other side of Madrid, and well there was more than enough to entertain us where we were!

It did however, show a stark contrast between the current local fería here in Salamanca, with a much more traditional focus on local food and music rather than wild partying, however culture is still a significant entity in it all!